Home for the Holidays: Celebrating Newark's Traditions, Old and New

From the Thanksgiving Day Race to the Lighted Parade, holiday concerts, and community celebrations, Home for the Holidays is about connecting the traditions we love and creating new memories along the way.

There's something special about coming home for the holidays.

Maybe it's seeing familiar faces, reconnecting with old friends, or sharing a tradition you remember from childhood with your own children.

Newark has a long history of holiday celebrations, some dating back nearly 50 years. And over the past few years, we've been working to connect those longstanding traditions with new experiences through Home for the Holidays.

As we prepare for another holiday season, I thought it would be a good opportunity to share how this initiative began, why it matters, and some of the activities everyone can look forward to. And, maybe a small trip down memory lane.

How Home for the Holidays Began

A few years ago, Newark Mayor Jonathan Taylor had a vision of bringing a lighted holiday parade to the village. He wanted to create something new for families to enjoy while building on Newark's existing traditions.

Around that same time, there were conversations happening in the community about holiday decorations and the traditions people remembered growing up. Some of those conversations, particularly on social media, weren't always positive.

But sometimes, if you can look beyond the frustration, there's something valuable underneath it.

Nostalgia is powerful, especially when it comes to our hometowns. We remember the buildings, decorations, celebrations, and perhaps most importantly, how those experiences made us feel.

Of course, communities change. We can't turn back the clock, bring back buildings that no longer exist, or recreate every decoration from decades ago.

And maybe we don't need to.

Sometimes what people are really missing isn't the physical things themselves, but the excitement, familiar faces, and sense of community they associate with those memories.

Those are things we can continue to create.

Rather than focusing on what Newark no longer had, we started looking at everything it already did and where we could build on it.

A Little Perspective on Holiday Decorations

I'll admit, I wasn't particularly fond of the large round ornaments hanging along Main Street by themselves. Without additional lights on the poles, they didn't quite create the festive atmosphere I hoped to see downtown.

But once I became more involved in the decorating process, I gained a much greater appreciation for what goes into making our village look beautiful.

Our Department of Public Works crew puts tremendous effort into maintaining and decorating Newark, not just during the holidays but throughout the year. It's easy to look at something and think about what could be different. It's another thing to understand the equipment, manpower, time, and resources involved.

And I'll admit, that perspective made me feel a little bad about being so critical of the ornaments. They represented someone's effort to make our community festive, and that deserved recognition.

At the same time, we saw an opportunity to complement what was already there.

One of our first initiatives was the community Christmas tree decorating contest. By inviting businesses, families, and organizations to decorate trees, we helped bring additional lighting from Route 31 through the downtown business district and into Central Park.

The existing ornaments continued through the church district toward Maple Avenue, extending the holiday decorations farther into the village.

I think that relatively simple adjustment made Newark feel noticeably more cheerful.

We didn't need to replace everything or light every block of the village. We found a way to build on what was already there while giving the community an opportunity to participate.

And that became an important part of the Home for the Holidays approach.

There's Actually a Name for That Feeling

Around the time Jonathan was sharing his vision for the Lighted Parade, I had been reading about a sociological concept called collective effervescence.

The term was introduced by French sociologist Émile Durkheim to describe the shared emotional energy people experience when they come together around common traditions, celebrations, or experiences.

It's that feeling when a crowd cheers together, when a familiar holiday song brings back memories, or when you're standing along a parade route surrounded by neighbors and friends.

What Jonathan was describing through his vision for the parade fit remarkably well with what I had been reading.

We weren't simply talking about giving people something to attend. We were talking about creating opportunities for people to feel connected to their community.

Research has linked these shared emotional experiences with stronger social bonds, feelings of belonging, and psychological well-being.

And the holidays offer a wonderful opportunity to create more of those experiences.

The interesting part was that Newark already had a strong foundation of traditions doing exactly that. We just needed to connect them.

Kicking Off the Season With Nearly 50 Years of Tradition

When we started thinking about Home for the Holidays, we recognized that Thanksgiving is often the first time families return to Newark during the stretch between Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's.

And what better way to welcome people home than with a tradition that's been doing exactly that for nearly five decades?

Newark's five-mile Thanksgiving Day Race began in 1977 and, with just one year when the race wasn't held, has continued bringing runners, alumni, families, volunteers, and spectators together on Thanksgiving morning.

This year marks the 49th running of the race.

For some, it's a competition. For others, it's an annual reunion, a family tradition, or simply a chance to reconnect with familiar faces before Thanksgiving dinner.

It made perfect sense to recognize the Turkey Day Race as the unofficial kickoff to Home for the Holidays.

We didn't need to invent a new tradition to start the season. We already had a pretty remarkable one.

Old Traditions, New Traditions, and Plenty to Look Forward To

From Thanksgiving, the holiday celebrations continue throughout Newark.

Now preparing for its third year, the Newark Lighted Parade has become an opportunity for businesses, community organizations, families, and residents to participate in a shared holiday celebration. From illuminated vehicles and floats to music, familiar faces, and Santa, it's a chance to experience our community in a different light.

The community Christmas tree decorating contest gives businesses, families, and organizations an opportunity to help brighten downtown and Central Park, while Newark's longstanding community Christmas tree lighting continues to bring people together.

But some of the most meaningful traditions are the ones that have been happening for years.

The annual Children's Christmas Party, hosted by WACK Radio and the Alex Eligh Community Center, continues to bring holiday excitement to local children and families.

The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra's holiday concert, presented through a partnership involving the Newark Chamber of Commerce and Newark Central School District, has been part of our community's holiday season for more than two decades.

Our Newark music students have their own holiday traditions, including performances at Eastview Mall. We've made an effort to follow them there, capture videos, and share livestreams so more of the community can enjoy those moments.

The First United Methodist Church's annual cookie sale is another familiar part of the season, along with the many other activities organized by local churches, businesses, schools, and community organizations.

These events don't all need to happen on the same day or even the same weekend. And they certainly don't all need to be organized by the Home for the Holidays Committee.

What matters is helping residents know what's happening, encouraging participation, and recognizing the organizations and volunteers who have kept these traditions alive.

Home for the Holidays isn't about taking ownership of those celebrations. It's about connecting them, supporting them, and helping more people discover them.

It's about collaboration, not consolidation.

Making Sure Everyone Has an Opportunity to Participate

Another important part of the committee's work has been looking at how we can make holiday celebrations accessible to as much of the community as possible.

If our goal is to bring people together, we have to consider what might prevent someone from participating.

That includes physical accessibility, affordability, making information easy to find, and recognizing that people of different ages and abilities may experience events differently.

Not every family has money to spend on holiday entertainment. Not everyone can comfortably navigate crowded spaces. And not everyone learns about community events through the same channels.

We may not be able to eliminate every barrier, but we can make a conscious effort to recognize them and do better.

There's also something special about the connections happening behind the scenes. Volunteers, businesses, community organizations, and Village employees all contribute to making these experiences possible.

Sometimes the relationships built while organizing an event are just as valuable as the event itself.

And that shared sense of purpose is another example of collective effervescence at work.

Today's Celebrations Are Tomorrow's Nostalgia

We often think about nostalgia as looking backward, remembering the decorations, music, celebrations, and people who made the holidays special when we were children.

But the traditions we're creating today are the memories people will look back on years from now.

A family decorating a tree in Central Park might make it an annual tradition. A child watching the Lighted Parade today may someday return with their own children. Someone who has participated in the Turkey Day Race for decades might find themselves cheering on the next generation.

That's how traditions grow.

We can't recreate everyone's childhood memories, but we can help create the memories that today's children will someday treasure.

As we head into another holiday season, I hope residents will take some time to explore the many activities happening throughout Newark.

Run the race, decorate a tree, enter the parade, attend a concert, support a local organization, volunteer, or simply come downtown and enjoy the decorations.

There's no single way to participate, and that's part of what makes Home for the Holidays special.

What started with Jonathan's vision for a Lighted Parade has grown into an opportunity to celebrate the traditions that bring people home, introduce new experiences, and make those celebrations more connected and accessible to our community.

Because the real value of a tradition isn't just how long it lasts. It's how many people feel they have a place in it.

We hope you'll find your place in Newark's Home for the Holidays celebrations this year.